Tooley's Big Adventure
by bluemimosa
Summary: The Burners try to foil Kane's latest plan but first they need to figure out what it is. Meanwhile Tooley gets stranded in Motorcity.


**Author's note: I tried something different with this fic. Think of this as a potential episode in the second season that never was. I played a little fast and loose with the science but they tended to do that in the show too.**

Mike was speeding down the overpass when a giant gun turret rose up and focused on his car. He swerved to avoid the getting shot at forcing Texas and Dutch to swerve to avoid Mutt. Then instead of firing the gun simply depowered and retracted. "What was that? Did we do anything to tick off the Skylarks?"

"We still have twenty minutes to spare on the delivery." Chuck said.

When they pulled up at the Skylarks Motel there were twice as many suited men as usual standing around trying to look causal. Mike got out of the car "What's with the extra security? You placed the order."

"Sorry about that we're a little on edge," Rayon said. "We caught an intruder last night."

He led them into the Skylark's security room and pointed to a monitor. On the screen they could make out the image of a man in a KaneCo uniform tied to a chair. "Hey, it's Tooley," Texas said.

"You know him?" Rayon asked.

"We've had some run-ins before," Mike said. "I'm kind of surprised you got involved with Deluxe troops."

"Just because we don't go out looking for trouble doesn't mean we like Kane sticking his nose down here anymore than you do," Rayon replied. "We've been trying to interrogate him but he's playing dumb."

"Oh, he's not playing. How about we make a deal? You let us take him and we'll find out why he was here," Mike suggested.

Rayon raised his eyebrow. "And how do we do a handoff without making him suspicious?"

When Julie logged into her workstation at the beginning of her intern shift she found a flashing message on the screen. When she tapped it it told her to report to Mr. Kane's office.

She went down the hall to his private door. "Hey Dad, you wanted to see me?"

Mr. Kane looked up from his desk. "Hi sweetie, Tooley's not here so I'd like you to fill in a little today."

"Is he sick?"

"No, he never made it back from Motorcity last night."

"Aren't you a least a little worried?" she asked.

Kane shrugged. "He's found his way back before. If he can't even do that again he's not much use to me anyway."

"This is embarrassing," Rayon said as he watched some of his best men engage in a mock fight with Mike and Texas. And right in front of a Kane-Co solider too.

"Number 42 is really getting into it. I wonder if he's ever considered LARPing?" Chuck commented looking at the monitor bank.

Rayon winced. "You Burners are going to have to make this up to us somehow."

"We're not getting paid for these parts are we?" Dutch asked as he finished unpacking them.

"That's how you can begin to make this up to us." Rayon said.

Julie was pretty sure she'd have the ladies room all to herself. There weren't many women working at the executive level. Just to be safe she set her com-screen to icon display and had the water running in the sink behind her to block out the noise. "Hey Mike, I have to work late. Tooley-"

"-got stranded in Motorcity last night," Mike finished her sentence. Julie leaned back on the edge of the sink in surprise.

"How do you know that?"

"He wandered into Skylark territory and got caught. Texas has him tied up in Stronghorn right now."

"And what are you planning to do with him?"

"I don't think Mike's thought that far ahead," Chuck chimed in.

"I'm working on it. First we need to figure out what he was up to."

"I'll see what I can find out." Julie signed out and hoped the guys wouldn't get themselves into any more trouble without her.

It had been a confusing 12 hours for Tooley. First he got to go down to Motorcity to help the advanced team carry stuff. Then he'd gotten lost. After that some really well-dressed guys captured him, handcuffed him and locked him in a room. Then he thought he was getting rescued but it turned out to just be the Burners. They'd taken him away from the well-dressed guys and shoved him in a car. Texas had driven very fast to a vacant lot. Finally they'd stopped and Texas had pulled him out.

And now Mike Chilton was glaring at him. "What were you doing in Motorcity last night?"

Tooley shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I'm not going to tell you about the lampy-thingys."

"So old Ponytail is putting up lamps in motorcity." Texas rubbed his chin and then stopped. "Texas doesn't get it."

Tooley did his best to sound menacing. "After we get all the lamps set up Mr. Kane is going to turn off the lights!"

"Where did you put this lamp?" Mike Chilton interrupted. He had an exasperated look on his face. Tooley recognized that look. He'd seen it before (on Mr. Kane and his teachers and sometimes even his mother) but he didn't have to put up with it from a traitor like Chilton.

"I'm not talking to you." Tooley scowled.

"Tex, can I talk to you a minute?" Chilton said and walked back toward his car.

Tooley grinned. He'd done it! He'd intimidated the Burners. They were running away. Wait, was he still handcuffed?

Mike gestured to the other Burners to come closer. "Okay gang, new plan. Texas is going to get the information."

Dutch was skeptical. "Last time Texas had this plan you said it was a horrible idea."

Mike nodded. "Yeah but Tooley likes Texas so he might actually tell him things. Besides unless Julie can find something this is our only lead."

Chuck shrugged. "It's better than just waiting for whatever-it-is to attack us."

"Okay Texas you drive him back to where the Skylarks captured him and see if anything jogs his memory. We'll be right behind you listening in," Mike said.

"Texas, the superspy is ready to go!"

"And no-"

"No mentioning Trixie. Yeah, don't worry I got this." Texas smirked and headed back toward Stronghorn and Tooley.

Chuck looked up from his computer display in Mutt's passenger seat. "Okay, I've rigged Texas's comlink so we can hear him but they can't hear us. Are you sure Texas can pull this off?"

"It'll be fine. You know like that old saying about the blind leading the blind," Mike said.

"That's not supposed to be a good thing." Chuck sighed. "Here goes."

Texas's voice filled the car. "No don't worry we're not going to talk about lamps. You're just going to tell me what you saw last night."

"There was a rock shaped like a dinosaur!"Tooley said. "And a field full of old junk."

"See? Texas is doing great." Mike said. His enthusiasm fell a little when Texas kept talking.

"So what do you have against Mike?" Texas asked. "I mean besides that fact that he's bossy and totally hogs the glory."

"He insults Mr. Kane, he wants to destroy Deluxe and he hit on Julie." Tooley's voice sounded sulky.

"What was that last one?" Dutch's com icon popped up on the Dash.

"I'm sure it's just Tooley's overactive imagination," Mike said.

Chuck peered out from between his bangs "Then why are you blushing?"

"Hey, that rock looks kind of like a Dinosaur."

Chuck turned his attention out the window "If you squint maybe. Now we just need to find the lamp. With any luck it will be shinier than the rest of the debris."

"Okay, tell Texas to circle around for a bit while we check it out."

Mike looked at the "lamp" it didn't look like any light he'd ever seen. For starters it was almost five feet tall and had no visible bulb. It had large ball on a tripod and the base was thick and covered by reinforced plating. "Any idea what this is really going to do? I doubt Kane is trying to beat us with ugly interior decorating."

Chuck pried a panel off of the globe. "There's no light source, in fact . . ." he dropped the panel. "Guys this isn't a lamp it's an EMP generator! It's set to give off a powerful electromagnetic pulse that will fry anything that uses electricity in the vicinity."

Dutch's eyes widened. "So it really will turn out the lights. All the lights. "

"And the computers and the communication network," Chuck continued.

"And the cars?" Mike asked.

"YES. AND THE CARS. It'll be chaos."

"And then Kane makes his move."

"Our weapons won't even work."

"We just have to make sure that doesn't happen." Mike looked at Chuck and Dutch. "I mean you can disable it right?"

Chuck continued poking around in the interior. "Yeah, no problem, it shouldn't take more than five minutes."

"Except Tooley said Lampy- _thingys_. So there are more of them," Dutch said.

Tooley twiddled his thumbs. Texas had switched the handcuffs from the back to the front which made it easier to sit in the car seat but he still couldn't punch anyone. He couldn't even reach over and unbuckle the seat belt. And now Texas wasn't even in the car.

Tooley stared out of the window. Texas was talking to the other Burners. They hadn't wanted him along. Tooley reminded himself that he didn't like the Burners and wouldn't want to talk to them anyway. Still it was kind of lonely all by himself. Also he was pretty sure that the Burners had found the lampy.

He watched a purple van drive up and Mike Chilton's green car drive away before Texas finally walked back. "Okay, time to hit the road again." Texas buckled himself into the front seat. "Say, do you remember where the other Kane-co goons went last night?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"It's ah, a surprise."

A surprise? Maybe there would be another party. Tooley perked up a little. Then his stomach growled.

Texas looked over his shoulder. "You hungry? Jacob's grub truck is right-AHHHH!" suddenly Texas yelled and put his hand over his ear. "All right, fine! We'll go someplace else."

Normally a visit form the head of the company would have made Dr. Fletcher nervous but today he was prepared. Operation Black Out was running on time and under budget. And when Mr. Kane came into the lab he was followed not by his usual enforcer but by a young woman. Dr. Fletcher smiled inwardly. This must be his lucky day.

"So at 1900 hours the EMP blasts will go off crippling Motorcity," Dr. Fletcher explained.

Mr. Kane looked at the map. "And what are those grey areas?"

"Oh, those are parts of the city that contain power cables or are too close to the dome. We didn't want to interfere with those."

"So what you're saying your devices will only affect part of Motorcity?"

"I wouldn't say part, more like most. 85%"

"That means there's a 15% chance the Burners will be unaffected!" Mr. Kane shouted.

"If we black out all of Motorcity it will damage systems that affect Deluxe as well," Dr. Fletcher protested. "It seemed like a good compromise".

Mr. Kane glanced over at his assistant who was examining the map closely. "Julie, why don't you go pick up my lunch. Dr. Fletcher and I need to discuss risk analysis."

The girl cast a worried look at him as she left and Mr. Kane cracked his knuckles. Maybe this wasn't his lucky day after all.

Tooley looked suspiciously at the paper container in front of him. Texas had told him they were nachos. He reached out to take one of the triangular pieces.

"Woah, wait! They're not done yet," Texas said and poured a thin bottle of red stuff over the orange stuff that was already covering them. "There, now you can eat."

Tooley took a bite. It was crunchy and hot, hot, hot! He grabbed his cup of water and gulped it down.

Texas shook his head. "I should have known it would be too much for you after all that super lame bland food you have in Deluxe."

Tooley put the cup of water down. "Let me try that again."

A block away Dutch paced as well as he could in the back of the grub truck. "Enough bonding. Get him to tell you where the other guys went." He turned his attention back to the monitor when Texas spoke.

"I bet the other Kane-Co guys couldn't handle sriracha sauce as well as you."

"Nah, they're not as brave as me," Tooley bragged.

"They probably stuck you with the dangerous job and went to easier place."

"They wouldn't do that."

"Oh yeah, well where'd they go?"

Tooley shrugged. "Dunno, one of them said something about a runway."

Jacob poked his head in from the cab of the food truck. "A runway? Sounds like one of those generators is by the old airport. See if you can get Texas to wrap things up and we'll head over there."

"Easier said than done," Dutch sighed. "Wait, Motorcity really had an airport?"

"We weren't always underground you know."

Chuck scanned his surroundings through binoculars. Junk, falling-down old building, vent, random cement pipe, Ah Ha! EMP generator. "Over there, third ridge over just past the minimart without a roof."

"Great, how'd you know figure out where it was?" Mike asked.

"If Kane's turning off power the gates would probably be the first thing he'd go for. All I needed to do was triangulate the best position to do that from."

"Now all we have to do is get over there so you can turn it off."

"Yeah, that's all." Chuck said looking at the unsteady terrain. If Kane-co troops had managed to climb up carrying a heavy EMP generator it couldn't be that bad, could it?

Mike's com beeped. "Hey Julie, did get my text on the EMPs?"

"Oh I got a lot more than that," She said.

"Well, not to worry we found them both."

"There are 5 them." She said. "But I found out the locations. I'm sending you a map."

Chuck pulled it up. "It's not very specific."

"I only saw a glimpse of it in the lab. And the original didn't go into street level detail." Julie pulled a face. "They're set to go off at 7 o'clock and after that troops come down."

"That gives us a little more than five hours," Mike said.

Julie brightened. "Oh, and they don't actually cover all of Motorcity. The area by the pumping station, the south cable cluster and the outer edges are out of range. Kane wasn't thrilled when the scientist brought that up."

"What happened then?" Mike asked.

Julie sighed. "Then he sent me to pick up his lunch." She held up a take-out carton.

Dutch answered an incoming call from Chuck. "So the bad news is there are 5 EMP generators." Chuck brightened up. "But the good news is Julie found a map. I'm sending it to you now."

"Is the airport on the map?" Jacob asked. "We're already on our way there."

"Good, Chuck's almost got the one by the Eastside gate," Mike said.

"So does this mean we don't need Tooley anymore?" Dutch asked.

"Probably not. Just have Texas keep him distracted for now," Mike said before signing off.

Dutch turned his attention to the road ahead. There weren't any ancient buildings which gave the area a flatter look but it was still hard to imagine someone landing planes there.

"You sure this used to be an airport?" he asked Jacob.

"I'm sure. I got my pilot's license here." Jacob said. "Of course, that was probably before they started farming on the landing strip."

"Just how old are you?"

Texas was bored. Being a super-secret ninja spy was cool and all but it wasn't nearly as exciting as the movies made it look. He didn't even get to go with Dutch and Jacob to take down the next lamp. Instead he and Tooley were supposed to wait. Well he wasn't just going to sit in Stronghorn. He was supposed to keep Tooley distracted right? Which meant keep him entertained. "C'mon little man it's time to do something fun."

"Okay! What are we going to do?"

"You haven't seen Texas's sweet gun-chuck skills." Texas looked around. "Watch me knock that old pot off the wall from here."

Texas had just finished knocking over the pot (and a large chunk of wall) when a herd of small bright purple cars pulled up.

Texas gritted his teeth as the Mamas boys piled out.

Junior walked over, his hands hooked behind his overall straps. "Well, if it isn't Texas. What are doing way out here?"

Texas snorted. "Why do you care? We're not in your territory so buzz off."

"Yeah but you're near our drag strip. How do we know you're not planning to spy on our techniques?"

"Texas doesn't need to spy on you to win a race," Tooley asserted confidently. "His car is bigger so it's obviously faster."

"That's not how it works," Junior snapped.

"Yeah-huh" Tooley retorted.

"Ladies, ladies calm down. Let's go over to your drag strip and Texas will prove he's faster."

The Duke of Detroit glared down at the two Burners from his throne. "So let me get this straight, you want to waltz into the middle of my territory?"

"Yes," said Mike Chilton with exaggerated patience. "And remove a destructive device Kane put there."

"I know do-gooding is your shtick but what makes you think I need _your_ help protecting _my_ land?"

"If that EMP generator goes off it won't just affect your land." Chuck said.

Cyborg Dan jerked his body around to stare at the Duke. "Wait, you never said it was an EMP device."

The Duke shrugged. "Why does it matter?"

"Some of us have circuits," Dan huffed.

"And you already found it," Chilton said flatly.

"Okay fine, you can take the thing," The Duke graciously offered. "But you owe me."

"How is letting us disarm it you doing us a favor?" Chilton asked.

"Well, if you don't want it I'm sure I can find somewhere else to put it," The Duke said.

Mr. Kane walked out of his office. "Julie, what's my next appointment?"

Julie pulled up the calendar. "You're scheduled to meet with the Ultra Elites at 5:00." She said and got up from Tooley's desk.

"Julie, you've been a good sport but I think you've done enough for the day." Kane looked at her fondly. "Why don't you go home or hang out with your friends?"

"Sure, Dad Thanks." Julie wondered whether to protest or feel grateful.

On the way down to her car she called Mike. "Kane's meeting with the invasion force now. How's it going in Motorcity?"

"We're in Greektown looking for the last beacon," Mike replied. "Find out anything else interesting?"

"No. Unfortunately Tooley's job didn't come with Tooley's security clearance. I'll meet you down there in twenty."

Texas's car was fast. It was faster than Tooley's pod, faster even than the Deluxitram. It turned out the little purple cars were fast too. And tricky. "They're sticking together!" Tooley said. "Is that cheating?"

"I'm not going to fall for that again," Texas said. He jerked the steering wheel moving his car away from the where the last purple car snaked sideways. Then he frowned. "Aw c'mon I'm wining!" Texas seemed to be having an argument with himself. "We'll be there."

Tooley watched as Texas turned on his com screen and called the purple car guys. "I have to leave. I've got more important things to do than schooling you!"

"I think you're just chicken, " the screen squawked out before Texas closed it.

"Stupid Mama's boys," he muttered under his breath. Texas then made a U-turn on the drag strip and headed back toward the center of town.

Tooley was having fun. There hadn't been time to look around earlier but now he was seeing Motorcity with a bona fide legend. Texas pulled up in front of a nondescript building and they got out to stretch their legs.

"That was so cool," Tooley gushed. "You went so fast. And the road had dragons painted on it!"

"Yeah if you think the drag strip was great you should see our test track," Texas said.

At that moment a green thing flew over and began buzzing angrily at Texas. It looked almost like a bot. "Hey! "Tooley yelled. "Get off him!"

Texas pried the weird green hands off his mouth. "Nah, Roth is cool. He's my robo-bubby. He just wanted to say hi."

Roth sighed and then made some chirping noises. Hi, Tooley guessed. Even the bots were different here. "You have robot friends too?" he asked.

"Yeah, don't you?"

"I had a robo-puppy once but Kane wouldn't let me keep him."

Chuck stepped back from the EMP generator and brushed off his hands. "That's the last of them. Now we need to figure out what to do with 5 deactivated EMP generators."

"And how we're going to get Tooley back to Deluxe without him getting suspicious." Julie added.

"I say we line 'em up in a row in the access tunnel so the troops know they should just go home," Dutch said. "And the sooner we get Tooley out the better. Texas does not need the encouragement."

"It's too bad we can't kill two birds with one stone," Mike said. "Convince Tooley that Kane-co weapons production could use some new lamps, take out blaster manufacturing with one fell swoop."

"And drop any nearby pods out of the sky?" Julie asked incredulously.

"Besides, the Deluxe electrical grid was built to withstand solar storms; they'd be back on their feet in no time," Jacob said.

"Okay so we can scratch that," Mike said.

"It does give an idea though," said Dutch. "We'd just need to modify one."

Abraham Kane checked the time display on his workstation screen. In just a few minutes Motorcity would be overcome by electromagnetic pulses. Then while they were still scrambling around in the dark his troops would move in. His gloating was interrupted when his door opened and his errant right hand man came in.

"Mr. Kane, I'm so sorry I'm late. The advanced team didn't wait for me and then I got captured by the Burners and then I had Nachos and then I escaped, "Tooley babbled.

"You got captured by the Burners? What were they doing?" Kane asked.

"They were finding the lamps," Tooley replied. "Texas said it would be nice to have more light down there. But don't worry I stole one back for us."

Kane's eyes almost bugged out of his head. "You brought one of the EMP devices back here? Where did you put it?"

"On the warpod landing pad so you can have light when it's night."

Kane glanced at the display again and then he sprinted for the elevator. As he waited the interminable seconds for the door to open he was already doing calculations in head. Could he shut off the beacon before it went off? Would the antigrav plates go into recovery mode in time to prevent the top of his building from falling?

The doors opened on the roof. There was the EMP generator right where Tooley had put it. As he ran towards it it clicked on. Instead of sending out an electromagnetic energy burst it sent light into the sky. Momentarily confused Kane drew back and looked up. The spotlight was shining a giant burner symbol on the clouds. It would be visible to anyone in the city.

"Tooley!"


End file.
